Motomedix

Motomedix Clinics are taking place five days per week in three different locations; Andong Village Slum, Stung Meanchay Dumpsite and Lakeside Youth School.

Budget:

In the last 12 months Chibodia spent an average of $760/month on medicine, staff, equipment and facilities.

Goals:

To Prevent and treat a diversity of diseases and sicknesses, especially in children. In difficult cases we work together with Hospitals in Phnom Penh.

It is also our goal to hold educational workshops on dental hygiene, general hygiene and basic injuries and diseases.

How do we choose the patients:

People with acute injuries, Children and the very poor, are treated first. After that we treat anyone that lives in the target area until our supplies run out.

Stung Meanchey Dumpsite was one of the catalysts that brought Chibodia to life. The visions of working children had shaken me to the core. They had inflamed the desire to see justice for these people.

In the evening of the day that Anne and I had walked around the dumpsite for the first time, without saying a word for two hours, I wrote an e-mail to Chris Allgeier, who is now our treasurer. The following excerpts are taken from that message written on the 19th of April 2006 and most accurately reflect our thoughts in light of the misery that we had seen.

„Hi ChrisAnne and I saw the beautiful sunset at the dumpsite today. Confused children carry even smaller children around there. The little ones have terrible coughs and inflated stomachs. They have used garbage to construct shacks on the garbage. I took a few pictures and cried, because nobody should have to live that way. (…). THIS IS TOTALLY INACCEPTABLE. I imagine if there is a hell, it would reek like that place. The difference is that you would find other people in hell and not Children that don’t know anything else. I wish I could just take them, wash them and love them. Why are things like this? Have the hearts of humans become so hard? (…) Maybe I shouldn’t have looked at all that, but I am more convinced than ever that this is not acceptable (…)”

When I was back in Germany several months later, I found myself comfortable, secure, safe, satisfied and relatively wealthy. Something however was not right anymore. I could not continue living as if nothing had happened; as if I hadn’t seen what was taking place on the other side of the world. The experience I had at dumpsite of Stung Meanchey had taken hold of me and would not let me go. After several grueling months, I realized I had to take action.

In the beginning of 2008 the events had come full circle. Motomedix! A joint idea of Nader Ebrahimi, who unfortunately is now deceased, and myself.

At first the concept of Motomedix was simple. The name reflected what we did. We would use dirtbikes to take medical supplies and provide medical treatment where cars could not go.

When the inhabitants of the dumpsite heard the mufflers of our motorbikes, they knew it was time for Motomedix. We would pull toe nails out of infected nail beds, dress wounds (that were usually infected already), cut open puss filled boils, and treat fungus in all stages. We would distribute medicine with instructions to fight Bronchitis, Worms, Ear infections, and much more. Children with high fevers and swollen lymph nodes were often brought by their mothers. I often wonder… what would happen to these children if we didn’t have antibiotics for them.

After a while, we realized that this purposeful activity of treating sicknesses was not enough. We had to take more preventative measures. We needed to educate the people of the health risks and dangers of their surroundings and how to minimize them. We kept the name Motomedix, and started opening Clinics.

Now we have three Motomedix “Health Clinics”. They are strategically located at the dumpsite of Stung Meanchey, the Lakeside Slum and Andong Village Slum, in order to reach those that have the greatest need. The facilities contain refrigerators for vaccinations and heat sensitive medicine, a medicine cabinet containing the medicines essential for slum-specific ailments, a bed, a stethoscope, blood sugar measuring devices, ECG (electrocardiogram), needles, stitches, injection moulds, Scissors, scalpel etc.Our biggest vision for this project, however, is to provide clean drinking water in these unsanitary living quarters. Digging a well is not possible, since the water table is continually contaminated by the garbage on the dumpsite or contaminated with arsenic as it is in Andong Village Slum. Rain water is not available for the better half of the year.

Many of the health related problems can be traced back to the lack of clean water. Half of the adults have headaches and the children are constantly dehydrated. A community clean drinking water facility along with water pipes bringing water into homes could drastically change their lives.

By starting the Clean Drinking Water Project in Andong Village, we have started to turn our vision into reality.